System and method for video conversations

ABSTRACT

This disclosure describes methods and systems for viewing a collection of media objects, such as a video clip and associated responses (video, audio and text), in a seamless way. Provided with a media object and a series of responses and counter responses, a real time media combining methodology is coupled with a text and audio conversion process to generate a media stream, or downloadable media object, that contains the original media object and some or all of the associated responses. The media content is formatted into the stream so that ancillary content, like text associated with a particular video response, may also be displayed. Advertisements may be inserted into the stream between responses or overlaying some portion of the viewing area during rendering of the stream.

BACKGROUND

It is now common to allow users to post responses on a web page tocomment on, review or respond to some content item or subject ofinterest. Recently, in addition to allowing text responses, many websites are allowing users to post video responses as well. Such videoresponses are often short video clips produced by the respondent, forexample by using a webcam attached to the respondent's computer.

Viewing such video responses, however, is currently not a veryaccommodating process. For example, to view a video response on thepopular web site WWW.YOUTUBE.COM, a viewer must first access a web pagefeaturing the original content item that video response relates to, thenclick on a “view video responses” icon to access another page with alisting of the video responses, then click on each video response torender the response on the viewer's computer. If the number of videoresponses is large, the user may also have to click between differentweb pages of the listing. Thus viewing video responses is a completelymanual process requiring significant user interaction on the part of theviewer.

Often, video responses are associated with text comments or othercontent separate from the video response and provided either by therespondent or the web site operator. Such content may be pertinent tounderstanding the video response and is usually displayed next to thevideo response. This further complicates the viewing of the videoresponse.

SUMMARY

This disclosure describes methods and systems for viewing a collectionof video clips and responses (video, audio and text) in a seamless way.When a video clip or other media object is posted to a web site, usersviewing the video have the option to respond to the video with a textresponse (e.g., typed into the site) or by posting an audio response ora video response (e.g., uploaded to the site after they create it). Thiscreates an initial media object and a series of responses and counterresponses. In an embodiment, a real time media combining methodology iscoupled with a text and audio conversion process to generate a mediastream that contains the video clip and some or all of the associatedresponses.

The disclosure includes a description of embodiments of a method forstreaming a video clip and at least one video response associated withthe video clip. The method includes publishing the video clip forviewing by consumers and receiving at least one video responseassociated with the video clip. The method further includestransmitting, to a user's computing device, a first interface with acontrol element that, upon selection, generates a request tosequentially render the video clip and at least one associated videoresponse on the user's computing device. Subsequently, the user selectsthe control and the request is received from the user's computingdevice. The method then retrieves the video clip and at least oneassociated video response and transmits them, in response to therequest, to the user's computing device. Embodiments of the methodfurther include generating a stream of video data containing the videoclip followed by the at least one video response and transmitting thestream of video data to the user's computing device.

The disclosure also describes a system for distributing video thatincludes a video datastore containing a plurality of video clips and,for at least one first video clip, a set of one or more associated videoresponses to the video clip; a search module that allows a user tosearch for video clips; a video streaming module that generates a streamof video data containing a first video clip and the set of associatedvideo responses in a sequence; and a transmission module that transmitsthe stream of video data in response to a request from a user to viewthe video clip and the set of associated video responses.

The disclosure also describes a computer-readable medium comprisingcomputer-executable instructions for performing a method for streaming aplurality of media object responses associated with an original mediaobject. The method includes publishing the original media object forrendering by consumers and receiving the plurality of media objectresponses associated with the original media object from the consumers.The method further includes transmitting, to a user's computing device,a first interface with a control element that, upon selection, generatesa request to sequentially render at least some of the plurality of mediaobject responses on the user's computing device. A request from theuser's computing device to sequentially render the at least some of theplurality of media object responses is then received. The method thenretrieves the at least some of the plurality of media object responsesidentified by the request and transmits them to the user's computingdevice. The media object responses may be transmitted as part of asingle stream of video data or may be transmitted individually forsequential rendering by the user's computing device.

These and various other features as well as advantages will be apparentfrom a reading of the following detailed description and a review of theassociated drawings. Additional features are set forth in thedescription that follows and, in part, will be apparent from thedescription, or may be learned by practice of the described embodiments.The benefits and features will be realized and attained by the structureparticularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof aswell as the appended drawings.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description andthe following detailed description are exemplary and explanatory and areintended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The following drawing figures, which form a part of this application,are illustrative of embodiments systems and methods described below andare not meant to limit the scope of the disclosure in any manner, whichscope shall be based on the claims appended hereto.

FIG. 1 illustrates an embodiment of an architecture for viewing acollection of associated video clips.

FIG. 2 illustrates an alternative embodiment of an architecture forviewing a collection of associated media objects.

FIG. 3 illustrates an embodiment of a method for generating aconsolidated stream of media data in response to a consolidated renderrequest.

FIG. 4 illustrates an embodiment of graphical user interface with aconsolidated render request control.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

This disclosure describes methods and systems for viewing a collectionof media objects, such as a video clip and associated responses (video,audio and text), in a seamless way. Provided with a media object and aseries of responses and counter responses, a real time media combiningmethodology is coupled with a text and audio conversion process togenerate a media stream, or downloadable media object, that contains theoriginal media object and some or all of the associated responses. Themedia content is formatted into the stream so that ancillary content,like text associated with a particular video response, may also bedisplayed. Advertisements may be inserted into the stream betweenresponses or overlaying some portion of the viewing area duringrendering of the stream.

FIG. 1 illustrates an embodiment of an architecture for viewing acollection of associated video clips. The architecture 100 is acomputing architecture in which media content may transmitted betweendevices for viewing by consumers. The architecture 100 illustrated is anetworked client/server architecture in which a rendering device(referred to as a “client”) 102 issues media requests to a remotecomputing device (referred to as a “server”) 118 that responds bytransmitting the requested media content to the client 102 for renderingto a user. The systems and methods described herein are suitable for usewith other architectures as will be discussed in greater detail below.

The client 102 is alternatively referred to as a rendering device as, inaddition to being able to receive, in some embodiments store, mediacontent transmitted from remote sources, it further is capable ofrendering (playing or displaying) such content to its user. Renderingdevices may be able to load and play different formats of videoincluding MPEG, DivX, Xvid, AMV and SigmaTel Motion Video (SMV); audioincluding MP3, WAV, and Ogg Vorbis; digital images, including BMP, JPEG,and GIF; and interactive media, such as flash animations.

To support this rendering capability, the client 102 may be a singlepurpose device consisting completely or primarily as hardware elementsand, possibly, firmware or unchangeable sets of software instructions.Alternatively, and as shown in FIG. 1, a rendering device may also be acomputing device capable of obtaining and executing different softwareapplications as needed. For the purposes of this disclosure, a computingdevice such as the client 102 or server 118 includes a processor andmemory for storing and executing data and software. Computing devicesmay be provided with operating systems that allow the execution ofsoftware applications in order to manipulate data. In the embodimentshown, the client 102 is a computing device, such as a personal computer(PC), web-enabled personal data assistant (PDA), a smart phone, aportable media player device such as an IPOD, or a smart TV set top box.

In the embodiment shown, the client 102 is connected to the Internet 101via a wired data connection or wireless connection such as a wi-finetwork, a WiMAX (802.16) network, a satellite network or cellulartelephone network. In an alternative embodiment, the client 102 may beconnected to the source of the media content via a private network or adirect connection.

In the embodiment shown, the client 102 includes an application (notshown) for rendering media content. Such applications are commonlyreferred to as media player applications. Examples of such applicationsinclude WINDOWS MEDIA PLAYER and YAHOO! MUSIC JUKEBOX. The media playerapplication, when executed, may generate a graphical user interface(GUI) on a display 121 attached to or part of the computing device 102.Alternatively, the GUI may be a web page provided by the server 118 thatuses the media player in an “embedded” mode. An example of a GUI isillustrated and discussed in FIG. 4. The GUI includes a set ofuser-selectable controls through which the user of the client device 102may control the rendering of the media content. For example, the GUI mayinclude a button control for each of the play-pause-rewind-fast forwardcommands commonly associated with the rendering of media on renderingdevices. By selection of these controls, the user may cause the client102 to render media content from local storage or from a remote source(e.g., a remote database, storage device or server) and control therendering of the content to the user.

The architecture 100 includes a server 118, which may be a single serveror a group of servers acting together. A number of program modules anddata files may be stored in a mass storage device and RAM of the server118, including an operating system suitable for controlling theoperation of a networked server computer, such as the WINDOWS XP orWINDOWS 2003 operating systems from MICROSOFT CORPORATION. The client102 is connected to the server 118 via a network, such as the Internet101 as shown.

The server 118 is a media server that serves requests from the clientfor media content. In an embodiment, the server 118 may be part of amedia file sharing system such as YOUTUBE, through which clients 102 maypost new media content, view media content posted by others and/or postmedia content in response to media content posted by others. In theembodiment shown, the system includes a video receiving module 114 thatreceives media content, such as a video clip and any related informationsuch as author name, date, time, textual content associated with thevideo clip, etc., from users and stores the content for later retrieval.

Such media content may be stored as a discrete media object (e.g., amedia file containing renderable media data that conforms to some knowndata format) that is accessible to the server 118, as a group ofassociated media objects and records, or in some other manner thatfacilitates efficient storage and retrieval by the server 118 of allrelated content. In alternative embodiments, the server 118 may be partof different types of systems, such as communications systems, in whichdifferent media content from different sources may be collected,searched and retrieved to be rendered as a group.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, media content takes the form of videocontent, or what is commonly referred to as “video clips.” Video clipsare segments (typically but not always short in length) of videocontent, which may be stored as discrete media files. In the filesharing embodiment, video clips discussed in this disclosure fall intotwo categories: root video clips and video clips that are responsesto/associated with a root video clip. Note also that a response may be aroot video clip for other responses and thus be a root video clip in onecontext and response in another. When discussing the file sharingembodiment, it is convenient to differentiate between the two types ofvideo clips in order to clarify their interrelationship. Thus, rootvideo clips will be referred to as either root video clips or videoclips and a response to a video clip will be referred to as a videoresponse if the response includes video content, a text response if theresponse is only textual, and an audio response if the response includesan audio component but no video component.

The server 118 is illustrated as being connected to a video clipdatabase 140. The video clip database 140 stores various video objectsthat may be requested by the client 102. Local data structures,including discrete media objects such as media files, may be stored on amass storage device, such as the video database 140. One or more massstorage devices may be connected to, or be part of, any of the devicesdescribed herein including the client 102 or a server 118. The massstorage device includes some form of computer-readable media andprovides non-volatile storage of data for later use by one or morecomputing devices. Although the description of computer-readable mediacontained herein refers to a mass storage device, such as a hard disk orCD-ROM drive, it should be appreciated by those skilled in the art thatcomputer-readable media may be any available media that can be accessedby a computing device.

By way of example, and not limitation, computer-readable media maycomprise computer storage media and communication media. Computerstorage media includes volatile and non-volatile, removable andnon-removable media implemented in any method or technology for storageof information such as computer-readable instructions, data structures,program modules or other data. Computer storage media includes, but isnot limited to, RAM, ROM, EPROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other solidstate memory technology, CD-ROM, DVD, or other optical storage, magneticcassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or other magneticstorage devices, or any other medium which can be used to store thedesired information and that can be accessed by the computer.

The server 118 includes a search module 108 through which a client 102may search for video clips stored in the video database 140. Forexample, clients 102 may search by keyword, author, subject matter,ratings, popularity, age, etc. The search module 108 receives searchrequests, such as through a user's interaction with a GUI on the display121, and returns search results to the client 102 for display to theuser. In an embodiment, the search results may be displayed via a searchresult GUI showing a listing of video clips that match the searchcriteria provided with the search request. From the results, a user mayselect a video clip to be transmitted to the client 102.

In an embodiment, the request for a video clip may result intransmission to the client 102 of a GUI (e.g., a web page for display ona browser or other application) specific to the selected video clip. Inan embodiment, the user may request the selected video clip throughcontrols on the video clip GUI. From this video clip GUI, the user ispresented various information about the web clip such as a listing ofany video responses to the selected video clip. This video clip GUI maybe generated by the search module 108 upon receipt of the user'sselection from the search results or other listing of video clips.

In the embodiment, the video clip GUI includes a control that allows auser to issue a consolidated render request. A consolidated renderrequest is a request to view multiple media objects (in this embodimentvideo clips) in a single rendering operation. For example, theconsolidated render request may be a request to view the video clip andall video responses. Alternatively, the consolidated render request maybe a request to view all the video responses alone without viewing theroot video clip. As discussed in greater detail below, the consolidatedrender request may also include user-selected criteria for selectingspecific video responses for the group, all video responses to the rootvideo clip, or user-selected criteria for ordering the video responseswithin the stream in a render sequence desired by the user (e.g., mostpopular video responses first).

In response to receiving a consolidated render request, a videostreaming module 110 on the server 118 retrieves the necessary mediacontent from the video database 140 and transmits the content to theclient 102 for rendering to the user. As discussed in greater detailbelow, the video streaming module 110 may generate a stream of mediadata and transmit the stream to the client 102 in the same manner that apre-existing media file would be streamed to a client 102 for rendering.In an alternative embodiment, the video streaming module 110 maytransmit each component video clip/responses and any other necessarycomponents individually to the client 102 from which the media player orsome other module on the client 102 renders a seemingly continuousstream to the user.

As described below, the video streaming module 110 may also generateadditional components such as transitions between the component videoclip and video responses. These additional components could includeinformation relating to the video clip and video responses, e.g.,identifying the author of the subsequent component.

In addition, the video stream module 110 may transmit one or moreadvertisements with the response to the client 102, for exampleselecting and placing advertisements between two adjacent components.For example, in the embodiment shown an advertisement database 138 isconnected to the server 118. The advertisement database 138 containsadvertisements that may be selected, such as based on some predeterminedcriteria, for inclusion in responses to consolidated render requests.The operator of the server 118 is then capable of billing advertisersfor placing advertisements in media streams viewed by its users. In analternative embodiment (not shown), the video streaming module 110 maynot select advertisements, but rather, transmit a request for one ormore advertisements to an advertisement server. Other methods ofobtaining advertisements are also possible and any suitable selectionand obtaining method or system could be adapted for use with the systemsdescribed herein.

FIG. 1 presents one embodiment of a client/server architecture forissuing and responding to consolidated render requests. Otherembodiments are also possible in which some functions or tasks aredistributed between multiple modules or provided by remote services.Furthermore, although discussed in terms of video clips, as mentionedabove the architecture 100 may equally be adapted to media objects ofany type of media content including audio, video and textual. Thearchitecture 100 may further be adapted to generate and stream differenttypes of content in a single, combined video stream so that a viewerissuing a consolidated render request could render all responsesregardless of content type for example, audio content being renderedconcurrently with text identifying the audio content's author, videocontent being rendered as described above, and textual content beingrendered on the display with a predetermined delay to allow for reading,or with a control allowing the viewer to start and stop the rendering ofthe stream.

FIG. 2 illustrates an alternative embodiment of an architecture forviewing a collection of associated media objects. In the architecture200 shown, a first user, user A 202, creates an original media object204, such as a video clip or other media content. In an embodiment theoriginal media object 204 may include any additional associated contentsuch as text, tags, descriptors, author identifier or other contentassociated with the video clip. Alternatively, such additional contentmay be stored independently of the original media object 204.

The original media object 204 is uploaded by user A 202 to a mediaobject capture server 206. The media object capture server 206 thenstores the original media object 204 in a media object store 208. Theoriginal media object 204 is published, i.e., made accessible via acommunications network, to consumers 212 via a media object playbackserver 210.

In the architecture shown, users B through N 214 create and submitresponse media objects, or responses 216, that either comment on or areotherwise submitted in a way that associates the responses 216 with theoriginal media object 204. The responses 216, like the original mediaobject 204, may be any type of media content or may be limited by thearchitecture to certain predetermined types of content. The responsesare individually submitted to the media object capture server 206 bytheir respective creator 214 and stored in the media object store 208.

The architecture 200 also includes an advertiser 218 (user Y) thatsupplies one or more (two are shown) advertisements 220 in the form ofmedia objects for use by the media object playback server 210. In theembodiment shown, the advertisements may be stored in the ad store 222,in the media object store 208 or both.

As described above, the playback server 210 provides consumers 212 withan option to request a consolidated stream containing a media object andany associated responses. In response to a consolidated render requestfrom a content consumer 212 (user X), the playback server 210 identifiesthe appropriate media objects 204, 216 and generates a consolidatedstream containing the identified objects 204, 216. In addition, theplayback server 210 may insert one or more advertisements 220,transitions between adjacent media objects or other media content withinthe consolidated stream of media objects.

FIG. 3 illustrates an embodiment of a method for generating aconsolidated stream of media data in response to a consolidated renderrequest. In the embodiment shown, the original media object is a rootvideo clip, but the reader will understand that the method could beapplied to any type of media object.

The method 300 starts with receiving and publishing the root video clipin a publishing operation 302. This may include generating a web pagefor the root video clip and allowing users to view and submit responsesto the root video clip.

One or more responses are received in a receive responses operation 304.Responses to the root video clip are received over a period of time andstored so that they are associated with the root video clip and can beeasily so identified in later searching operations and for retrieval.

In transmit GUI operation 306, consumers wishing to view the root videoclip are transmitted a GUI that includes a consolidated render requestcontrol, such as the GUI presented in FIG. 4. Through this control, aconsumer may transmit a consolidated render request. The GUI may furtherincludes one or more controls that allow the consolidated render requestto be limited with filter criteria or to include sequence criteria. Inan embodiment, if no limitations are selected by the consumer in therequest, the system may, by default, transmit the root video clipfollowed by all responses in a sequence corresponding to either theorder in which they were received or some other predetermined order suchas by popularity rank.

A consolidated render request generated by a consumer selecting theconsolidated render request control on the GUI is received in receiverequest operation 308. In response, the root video clip and/or allresponses identified in the request are retrieved from storage or froman intermediate cache in a retrieval operation 310.

In the embodiment shown, a stream containing the retrieved video clipand/or responses is generated in a generation operation 312. Thegeneration operation 312 may include changing the format of one or moreof the retrieved video clip and/or responses to make them suitable forrendering on the requesting consumer's device. In addition, sponsoredadvertisements and/or transitions can be inserted or placed between theclips in the stream as deemed appropriate by the content of the streamor the tags associated with the video clips and responses.Alternatively, advertisements or other content may be placed in thestream so that they appear concurrently with an original media object orresponse. For example, an advertisement may be placed so as to appear asa ticker or banner in a lower portion of the video display, eithercovering the underlying video content or by momentarily changing theaspect ratio of the video content.

A transmission operation 314 then transmits the stream containing theretrieved video clip and/or responses to the consumer's device. In analternative embodiment of the method previously discussed, the retrievedvideo clip and/or responses may be transmitted individually forsequential rendering by the consumer's device. The transmission includesan indication to the receiving device of the sequence for rendering thevideo clip and video responses. The indication may be as simple as theorder for rendering or may be some data appended to each individualtransmission.

The generation and transmission operations 312, 314 may be performedsimultaneously. For example, upon a consumer's selection of theconsolidated render control, an embedded video player is presented onthe GUI and video begins playback by streaming the first clip to theconsumer's device for rendering by the video player. As the video plays,the playback server queues up and/or converts (if the upcoming responseis not currently in video form) and queues up the next response. Whenthe first clip ends, the first response is streamed and starts renderingon the consumer's device, with a possible transition effect (e.g., fade,cut, sweep) between the clips to make the transition appear seamless.The transition may also include auto generated titles introducing thenext clip. For example, the screen could fade to white and lettersappear stating, “Response From LonelyGirl15” and then fade into theresponse from LonelyGirl15. This next clip response is played and stepsare repeated until the end of the set of responses is reached or untilthe users terminates the playback. An advertisement may be insertedwithin the stream such as between any two responses, such advertisementsbeing selected based on some criteria possibly associated with the rootvideo clip, or the previous or following response.

Some variations in the content of the consolidated stream are possible.For example, a consumer may select such filter/sequence criteria as, forexample: “Only show me a set of responses that enforce their politicalpoint of view”; “Only show me top X number of responses”; “Only show mea program X minutes in duration”; “Only show me responses with a ratinglevel over X”; “Only show me responses with a specific tag or set oftags”; “Only show me responses from my social network”; and/or “Don'tshow me ads (for consumers that have paid for this privilege bypurchasing a premium membership)”.

The method 300 could also be used to generate a downloadable mediaobject instead of a real-time stream, such as a podcast, which can thenbe viewed on a mobile device, phone or media player.

The systems and methods described herein greatly improve the userexperience when reviewing clips and their responses and further allowsnon-video responses to be integrated into the response stream. Theconsolidated stream may be customized by a user based on individualpreference. In addition, a monetization channel is provided by creatingadvertisement insertion opportunities where none existed before (studieshave shown that pre and post roll advertisements do not fare well)whereas these advertisements appear in a familiarcommercial/interstitial format.

FIG. 4 illustrates an embodiment of a GUI with a consolidated renderrequest control. The GUI 400 includes an embedded video player 402 witha video rendering area 404, illustrated with one embodiment of standardcontrol elements (buttons, timeline, etc.) for controlling the playbackof a media stream or a downloaded/locally stored media object. In anembodiment, the GUI 400 is a web page dedicated to a root video clip,the first frame of which may be displayed in the video area 404. Videoresponses to the root video clip are indicated by showing their firstframe in smaller, video response thumbnail frames 406. More videoresponses may be accessed via selection of a show more video responsescontrol 408. Textual responses are shown in a text responses listing 410with various controls for viewing additional listings of the textualresponses.

In the embodiment shown, a consolidated render request control 405 isprovided in the form of a user-selectable button control element. A usermay select this button 406 to generate a consolidated render request andbegin rendering the consolidated stream in the video playback area 404.A user may input default filter and sequence criteria via another GUI,e.g., a filter criteria GUI (not shown), that may be accessible bycommand menu, e.g., a File, Edit, View menu (not shown) associated withthe media player or the GUI 400 or via a linked control 412 provided forthat purpose on the GUI 400. Alternatively, a filter criteria GUI may bepresented to a user upon selection of the consolidated render control405.

Those skilled in the art will recognize that the methods and systems ofthe present disclosure may be implemented in many manners and as suchare not to be limited by the foregoing exemplary embodiments andexamples. In other words, functional elements being performed by singleor multiple components, in various combinations of hardware and softwareor firmware, and individual functions, may be distributed among softwareapplications at either the client or server level or both. In thisregard, any number of the features of the different embodimentsdescribed herein may be combined into single or multiple embodiments,and alternate embodiments having fewer than, or more than, all of thefeatures described herein are possible. Functionality may also be, inwhole or in part, distributed among multiple components, in manners nowknown or to become known. Thus, myriad software/hardware/firmwarecombinations are possible in achieving the functions, features,interfaces and preferences described herein. Moreover, the scope of thepresent disclosure covers conventionally known manners for carrying outthe described features and functions and interfaces, as well as thosevariations and modifications that may be made to the hardware orsoftware or firmware components described herein as would be understoodby those skilled in the art now and hereafter.

While various embodiments have been described for purposes of thisdisclosure, such embodiments should not be deemed to limit the teachingof this disclosure to those embodiments. Various changes andmodifications may be made to the elements and operations described aboveto obtain a result that remains within the scope of the systems andprocesses described in this disclosure. For example, a user may bepresented with a view video clip and all responses control on a searchresults page, so that a user need not first be presented with a videoclip web page before the user can issue the request to view all thevideo responses. Some amount of information may be provided on thesearch results listing to indicate how many video responses there are.

Numerous other changes may be made that will readily suggest themselvesto those skilled in the art and which are encompassed in the spirit ofthe invention disclosed and as defined in the appended claims.

1-37. (canceled)
 38. A method comprising: publishing, on a networkplatform hosted by a computing device on a network, a digital videoclip, said publishing enabling each of a plurality of users to interactwith the video clip; receiving, over the network at the computing devicefrom a device associated with a subset of the plurality of users, aresponse file, each received response file comprising user generatedcontent (UGC); storing, via the computing device in an associateddatabase, each received response file in association with said digitalvideo clip; generating and communicating, via the computing device, agraphical user interface (GUI) to each subset user, said GUI comprisinga viewing region and a response region, and additionally comprising acontrol element that upon selection generates a request to compile amedia stream from the video clip and at least one stored response file;receiving from a first user, at the computing device, a requestgenerated and sent to the computing device from a device of the firstuser upon said first user interacting with said control element of thereceived GUI; generating, via the computing device in response to saidfirst user request, a consolidated media stream comprising the videoclip and each of the response files; and publishing, via the computingdevice on said network platform, said consolidated media stream, suchthat each of the plurality of users is capable of streaming saidconsolidated media stream.
 39. The method of claim 38, furthercomprising: communicating said consolidated media stream to said firstuser, said communication causing the consolidated media stream to beplayed within the viewing region of the GUI in accordance with saidrendering instructions.
 40. The method of claim 38, wherein eachresponse file having an individual format chosen from a group ofindividual formats consisting of text, audio and video, each individualformat having different rendering characteristics.
 41. The method ofclaim 40, wherein said consolidated media stream further comprisingrendering instructions defining at least each file's different renderingcharacteristics so as to adjust how each response file is rendered basedon each response file's individual format.
 42. The method of claim 38,wherein said publishing said consolidated media stream enables saidplurality of users to access said consolidated media stream at a networklocation.
 43. The method of claim 38, further comprising: generating, inresponse to said first user request, a second consolidated media streamcomprising the video clip and a portion of the response files; andpublishing said second consolidated media stream for access by saidplurality of users.
 44. The method of claim 39, further comprising:adding a transition effect between each response file, wherein saidconsolidated media stream includes said added transition effects.
 45. Anon-transitory computer-readable storage medium tangibly encoded withcomputer-executable instructions, that when executed by a computingdevice, perform a method comprising: publishing, on a network platformhosted by the computing device on a network, a digital video clip, saidpublishing enabling each of a plurality of users to interact with thevideo clip; receiving, over the network at the computing device from adevice associated with a subset of the plurality of users, a responsefile, each received response file comprising user generated content(UGC); storing, via the computing device in an associated database, eachreceived response file in association with said digital video clip;generating and communicating, via the computing device, a graphical userinterface (GUI) to each subset user, said GUI comprising a viewingregion and a response region, and additionally comprising a controlelement that upon selection generates a request to compile a mediastream from the video clip and at least one stored response file;receiving from a first user, at the computing device, a requestgenerated and sent to the computing device from a device of the firstuser upon said first user interacting with said control element of thereceived GUI; generating, via the computing device in response to saidfirst user request, a consolidated media stream comprising the videoclip and each of the response files; and publishing, via the computingdevice on said network platform, said consolidated media stream, suchthat each of the plurality of users is capable of streaming saidconsolidated media stream.
 46. The non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium of claim 45, further comprising: communicating saidconsolidated media stream to said first user, said communication causingthe consolidated media stream to be played within the viewing region ofthe GUI in accordance with said rendering instructions.
 47. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 45, whereineach response file having an individual format chosen from a group ofindividual formats consisting of text, audio and video, each individualformat having different rendering characteristics.
 48. Thenon-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 47, whereinsaid consolidated media stream further comprising rendering instructionsdefining at least each file's different rendering characteristics so asto adjust how each response file is rendered based on each responsefile's individual format.
 49. The non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium of claim 38, wherein said publishing said consolidatedmedia stream enables said plurality of users to access said consolidatedmedia stream at a network location.
 50. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium of claim 38, further comprising:generating, in response to said first user request, a secondconsolidated media stream comprising the video clip and a portion of theresponse files; and publishing said second consolidated media stream foraccess by said plurality of users.
 51. The non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium of claim 46, further comprising: addinga transition effect between each response file, wherein saidconsolidated media stream includes said added transition effects.
 52. Acomputing device comprising: a processor; and a non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium for tangibly storing thereon programlogic for execution by the processor, the program logic comprising:logic executed by the processor for publishing, on a network platformhosted by the computing device on a network, a digital video clip, saidpublishing enabling each of a plurality of users to interact with thevideo clip; logic executed by the processor for receiving, over thenetwork at the computing device from a device associated with a subsetof the plurality of users, a response file, each received response filecomprising user generated content (UGC); logic executed by the processorfor storing, via the computing device in an associated database, eachreceived response file in association with said digital video clip;logic executed by the processor for generating and communicating, viathe computing device, a graphical user interface (GUI) to each subsetuser, said GUI comprising a viewing region and a response region, andadditionally comprising a control element that upon selection generatesa request to compile a media stream from the video clip and at least onestored response file; logic executed by the processor for receiving froma first user, at the computing device, a request generated and sent tothe computing device from a device of the first user upon said firstuser interacting with said control element of the received GUI; logicexecuted by the processor for generating, via the computing device inresponse to said first user request, a consolidated media streamcomprising the video clip and each of the response files; and logicexecuted by the processor for publishing, via the computing device onsaid network platform, said consolidated media stream, such that each ofthe plurality of users is capable of streaming said consolidated mediastream.
 53. The computing device of claim 52, further comprising: logicexecuted by the processor for communicating said consolidated mediastream to said first user, said communication causing the consolidatedmedia stream to be played within the viewing region of the GUI inaccordance with said rendering instructions.
 54. The computing device ofclaim 52, wherein each response file having an individual format chosenfrom a group of individual formats consisting of text, audio and video,each individual format having different rendering characteristics 55.The computing device of claim 54, wherein said consolidated media streamfurther comprising rendering instructions defining at least each file'sdifferent rendering characteristics so as to adjust how each responsefile is rendered based on each response file's individual format. 56.The computing device of claim 52, further comprising: logic executed bythe processor for generating, in response to said first user request, asecond consolidated media stream comprising the video clip and a portionof the response files; and logic executed by the processor forpublishing said second consolidated media stream for access by saidplurality of users.